Influence of emotions on coping behaviors in crisis: a computational analysis of the COVID-19 outbreak

Widespread public crises often give rise to the proliferation of sensationalized rumors and conspiracy theories, which can evoke a variety of public emotions. Despite the growing importance of research on the relationship between emotions and coping behaviors in crisis, a dearth of natural observation-based investigation has been limiting theory development. To address this gap, this study conducted computational research to study the U.S. public’s discrete emotions and coping behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak crisis, analyzing Twitter data, Google Trends data, and Google Community Mobility data. The results revealed that anger and fear were relatively more prominent emotions experienced by the public than other discrete emotions. Regarding the impacts of emotions on coping behaviors, it was found that the prevalence of low-certainty and retreat emotions was related to increased information-seeking and information-transmitting behaviors. Also, the prevalence of both high-certainty and low-certainty emotions during the COVID-19 outbreak was positively related to the public’s compliance with public health recommendations.